CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/20/2017

What does it take to be President of the United States? Alexander Gardner's February 5, 1865, portrait of our sixteenth President captures Abraham Lincoln four weary years into the Civil War and just two months before his assassination on April 14. It is one of 114 historical portraits gathered in a book that is remarkable in every way. Published and expertly tri-tone printed by Steidl, this magnificent edition makes for an excellent reminder of what we have been through as a country over the past two and a half centuries, and what we must stand for now. Lincoln's face, essayist Harold Hozler writes, was "'a type foreshadowing democracy,' fully representing its possibilities, and visibly suffering for its preservation."